Welcome to the $3-million club. The following 10 MPs will each receive an estimated total lifetime pension of more than $3 million if they retire in 2019.
All the estimates come from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and are based on an MP retiring in 2019 and ceasing to receive their pension at age 80.
10. Michael Chong - $3,124,903 (2015 = $2,684,816)
9. Peter Van Loan - $3,194,114 (2015 = $2,462,029)
8. Rona Ambrose - $3,330,876 (2015 = $2,429,149)
7. Rob Anders - $3,643,873 (2015 = $3,034,089)
6. Denis Coderre - $3,701,989 (2015 = $3,288,821)
5. Scott Brison - $3,723,666 (2015 = $3,113,881)
4. James Moore - $3,795,386 (2015 = $2,893,658)
3. Gerry Byrne - $3,996,498 (2015 = $3,450,711)
2. Jason Kenney - $4,318,507 (2015 = $3,416,779)
1. Stephen Harper - $5,596,474 (2015 = $5,456,109)
Prime Minister Stephen Harper would receive an estimated lifetime pension of $5,456,109 if he were to retire in 2015.
Harper's numbers are based on the PM not buying back into the program for his service as a Reform Party MP between 1993-1997. In order to make a political statement, Harper did not contribute to the pension program during his time as a Reform MP.
After returning to Parliament Hill in 2002, Harper could have retroactively contributed to the program for his service from 1993 to 1997. According to the PMO, Harper has not and will not make those contributions. MPs are not obligated to disclose this information.
If Harper were to choose to buy back in for those years, his numbers would change. If he were to buy back in and retire in 2019 he would receive an estimated lifetime pension of $6,216,858 and $6,233,568 if he were to retire in 2015.
His numbers also include the special allowance he will receive as Prime Minister.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/01/19/mp-pension-most-expensive-stephen-harper_n_1216677.html
These people, while in office, have legislated themselves annual pay increases of between 1.5 and 3.3 percent.
Few Canadians know how well-paid our politicians are. There is a good reason for that ignorance: no one in power has a vested interest in publicizing how much they take home. Unlike politicians in the U.S. or Britain, our elected officials don’t have to publicize details of their expense accounts. Unlike U.S. senators or congressional representatives, they aren’t required to publicly disclose their approximate net worth or their sources of income.
( Figures from 2009) For most MPs, election to Parliament has meant a very nice raise. Every MP earns at least $157,731 a year. The paycheque doesn’t vary by how long you’ve occupied your seat, or by your attendance in the Commons, or by your productivity. Each MP gets the same raise every year. The increase is based on the average hikes in pay negotiated by unions in the private sector. This year the raise was supposed to be 3.3%. But with the global economy imploding and the budget sinking back into deficit, MPs decided to cut their raise to 1.5%, or about an extra $2,000 a year per elected official.
MPs boost their income if they become party whip or caucus chairman. You get an especially large bump if you’re appointed to cabinet, where each minister is paid $233,000 a year. Of course, the best-paying job of all is prime minister. Stephen Harper will earn $315,462 this year, double what backbenchers make.
All this while the Conservatives tell pensioners what a burden they are on the pension system and warn our children and grandchildren of impending loss of their future pension earnings.
Of course their reasoning is that we are standing in their way of greater annual increases in both THEIR salary and THEIR pensions.
It’s fair to point out — and politicians do — that our MPs, cabinet ministers and even prime minister make far less than many CEOs or even Bay Street lawyers. On the other hand, the lowliest MP earns about four times what an average Canadian takes home.
This was not always the case. Just nine years ago the base pay for an MP was $68,200, pretty much in line with what a high school teacher or police officer might earn. Since then MPs’ salaries have more than doubled. They now sit in the top 2% of income earners, on a par, if not ahead, of most physicians, lawyers and dentists.
http://www.moneysense.ca/2009/10/01/inside-stephen-harpers-wallet/
The House sits for 130 days, during that period MP's who reside more than 100 km from Ottawa are paid a living allowance.
Life is rough on Parliament Hill. All this while the average Canadian has a family to support, rent or mortgage to pay, travel expenses and politicians to support all while trying to find a few extra dollars for their retirement .....
Life is tough in the middle class but nothing is more humiliating than being lectured, by those living off the Canadian tax dollar, that they are not doing enough.
And then we are told we should be thankful for things we signed up for .......
- Unemployment insurance ..... we're taxed for it
- Medicare .... we're taxed for it
- Pensions .... we're taxed
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